In a prior post, I shared some images of notated scores for the song “Kalena Kai.” In this post I will muse about sound recordings. The list below shows recordings that I have identified of the sog “Kalena Kai”–which was also titled from the first line, ” ‘O Kalena Kai.” To the best of my ability to date recordings, the list attempts to be a chronological listing. (Any inaccuracies and omissions are unintentional, and simply a matter of what I have access to at this point. However, I am pretty confidence that any factual corrections are not likely to have an impact on the “big picture” that I am trying to convey.)

The song is a hula ku‘i song. It has verses; verses are separated by instrumental “vamps,” and the same tune is repeated of varied for each of the verses. Hula ku‘i, unquestionably. Also because every recording uses stringed instruments–guitar & ‘ukulele–in the accompaniment, rather than the ipu heke used in chanted hula ‘ōlapa. But note that at least four recordings use the strum that some hula people call the ” ‘ōlapa strum” which mimics the rhythmic patterns of ipu heke. The strum is associated historically with the song “Na Ka Pueo” recorded on 49th State Records in the 1950s

Interesting, ‘eā? The 1916 sheet music suggests (instructs?) “slow Hawaiian tempo”, yet the earliest recordings are among the speediest. Little wonder: Kane‘s Hawaiians are engaged in that kind of Hawaiian guitar playing popular in the 1920s, all about wizardry, really. Then by the time Lena Machado and Bill Lincoln record their versions, the speeds have become more friendly to hula dancers. These hula-friendly tempos are maintained by recording artists whose recordings were popular among hula studios. The Aloha Pumehana Serenaders, with Darrell Lupenui singing lead, is classic for hula dancing. And who among Hālau Hula o Maiki students will ever forget the Kahauanu Lake Trio recording? Music for our Basic Hands routine, at the start of every class!

Dean Lum and the group Kapena both take the tempo up. Then another group of recordings bring down the tempo to a reflective and introspective speed that seems more in line with “slow Hawaiian tempo”–notably Tony Conjugacion, Russell Mauga (lead singer of the contemporary group Ho‘aikane), and the very mellow Kanilau.

Who, in the end, is to say what is right? Every recording artist had his or her reason for selecting a particular tempo. And the song remains a song marking a royal visit (ʻo ka lua o nā lani) to the area from Mokule‘ia around Ka‘ena point and toward Waimalu. So we can appreciate that musicians have kept this song in play since its first appearance as a mele in 1893 (see previous post about “Kalena Kai”).